7  c 


LIBRARY 


(14  Jfimttion  of  lJmtrtpt«$, 


J  1  J 

t|J$  ]k\\\u\k\\  df  liabilities: 


AN  ADDRESS 


BY 


Ex- President  of  the   University  of  Michigan, 


Delivered   at   the  Commencement   Exercises    of  the 
University  of  California,  June  1,  1881. 


SAN    FRANCISCO: 

Cubbby  &  Company,  Steam    Book    axd   Job    Printers, 

4.15  Market  Street,  just  below   First. 
1SS1. 


f  Ijt  Jpmtftm  of  Ijimuewitic^ 


Will  universities  ever  become  obsolete?  Are 
they  an  integral  element  of  an  ideal  state;  or  non- 
essential, and  in  the  ages  destined  to  be  ephemeral  ? 

The  great  Roman  orator,  who  was  proud  to  be 
called  the  Savior  of  his  Country,  said:  "  Times 
change,  and  w^e  change  with  them."  And  cer- 
tainly a  picture  of  the  eternal  city  as  it  was  in  his 
days,  by  the  side  of  a  photograph  of  the  same  city 
to-day,  would  confirm  that  exclamation.  Where 
is  the  Forum?  The  Senate-house?  Where  the 
perpetual  fire?  Where  the  conquerors'  triumphs? 
Where  the  subsequent,  now  ruined  Colosseum? 
The  largesses  of  bread  and  the  circus?  Where,  in- 
deed, the  Appian  Way?     The  Code  Justinian? 

It  may  be  claimed  that  such  mutations  are 
superficial.  Phenomena  bubble  up  and  burst,  sub- 
stance abides;  clouds  change  their  form,  but  the 
supply  of  heat  and   vapor   is   ever  renewed,  and 


P 


4 

nature's  clock  never  runs  down.  The  Parliament 
House  takes  the  place  of  the  forum,  the  pulpit  of 
the  theater,  the  cathedral  of  the  temple,  and  human 
passions  still  manifest  themselves  in  work,  and 
empty  noise.  Gesticulations  and  intonations  per- 
petuate themselves,  though  the  accents  and  articu- 
lations may  vary.  True  it  is  that  human  nature 
and  experience  have  a  limited  range,  and  history 
is,  if  not  cyclical,  spiral;  yet  within  the  limits  in 
which  it  ever  returns  upon  itself,  lies  all  the  terri- 
tory that  employs  the  sage,  the  statesman,  the 
reformer  and  the  philosophical  historian. 

The  question  then  is  still  pertinent:  Are  univer- 
sities essential  or  accidental?  Had  ancient  Egypt 
anything  parallel  with  a  modern  European  or 
American  university?  If  so,  what  good  did  it  ac- 
complish ?  If  not,  would  it  have  saved  the  country? 
How  did  Greece  and  Rome  meQt  the  demands 
filled  by  these  modern  institutions  ? 

That  some  institutions  like  what  we  now  call 
universities  have  existed  in  all  civilized  commu- 
nities, that  they  have  been  a  cause  and  not  a  mere 
effect  of  advancing  civilization,  and  that  they 
have  exhibited  in  origin  and  potency  the  peculiar 
elements  of  contemporary  society,  may  be  inferred 
from  what  scanty  facts  we  have.  But  whether 
they  will  always  abide,  and,  if  so,  what  will  prob- 
ably be  their  future  form,  are  themes  prolific  in 
thought  and  profit. 

We  are  not  now  in  the  middle  ages  of  little  Europe, 
and  can  never  reproduce  its  history.     Once  there 


the  monastery  and  the  court  were  the  two  foci  of 
whatever  intellectual  and  moral  forces  existed,  and 
the  monastery  perhaps  developed  into  the  univer- 
sity; but  the  days  of  crusades,  knight-errantry,  and 
the  Inquisition  have  passed  away.  No  longer  do 
the  most  of  the  leading  thinkers  of  the  genera- 
tion gather  themselves  in  groups  in  cloistered 
walls  or  even  university  halls,  while  the  great 
mass  assemble  about  them  to  be  bought  and  sold 
with  the.  cattle,  and  housed,  and  fed,  and  milked, 
and  shorn.  As  the  striae  on  the  bed-rock,  and 
the  boulders  on  the  plains  and  hillsides  betoken 
the  long-passed  glacial  age,  so  the  ruins  of  mon- 
asteries and  castles  in  western  Europe  are  traces 
of  a  social  condition  as  truly  forever  past  as  the 
age  of  the  icthyosaurus  and  pterodactyl  in  the 
red  mud  of  ancient  marshes  and  forests. 

But  the  castellated  age  witnessed  the  beginnings 
of  universities.  Are  they,  too,  to  become  extinct 
as  one  of  the  relics  of  feudalism? 

Our  own  age  has  its  peculiar  atmosphere,  and 
we,  being  to  the  manor  born,  exult  in  it.  We 
roll  on  our  railways,  toss  on  our  steamboats,  blow 
up  and  wash  down  mountains,  speculate  in  fancy 
stocks,  read  our  newspapers,  discuss  star  mail 
routes  and  civil  service  reforms,  politics,  philoso- 
phy, agnosticism  and  religion,  and  flatter  ourselves 
that  the  world  has  lately  reached  its  maximum. 
Certainly  the  times  change  and  we  with  them. 
But  what  of  universities  in  this  rolling,  crashing, 
grinding  age  \     Will  they  soon  be  left  to  be  gazed 


at,  covered  with  debris,  to  be  investigated  by 
future  archeologists?  What  is  a  university?  I  do 
not  pause  to  determine  what  the  word  may  first 
have  signified,  or  ought  to  signify;  but  to  us  now, 
what  body  and  soul  does  it  present  to  our  imagin- 
ation ? 

It  is  easy  to  say  what  it  is  not.  It  is  not  the 
place  by  eminence,  or  one  of  a  few  places  only, 
ail  of  one  kind,  where  nearly  all  the  original  think, 
ers  of  the  race  are  congregated.  It  is  not  the 
spot  where  men  still,  like  Abelard,  the  Friar 
Bacon,  Huss,  Luther,  and  WycHffe  project  upon  the 
world  nearly  all  the  thought  that  gives  fashion  to 
the  times.  Thought  is  no  longer  the  privilege 
only  of  a  few.  The  world  is  full  of  aroused  mind. 
Were  mind  proved  to  be  only  some  sublimated 
form  of  matter  we  might  begin  to  fear  that  the 
whole  globe  would  yet  be  evaporated  and  trans- 
lated into  a  dream. 

There  is  more  aroused  thought  now  in  a  single 
State  of  our  Union  than  there  was  in  the  entire 
Roman  Empire  in  the  days  even  of  Augustus 
Caesar.  Had  we  a  psychometer  to  measure  soul- 
force,  as  a  thermometer  measures  active  heat,  we 
should  find  that  the  world  of  mind  in  the  human 
race  has  undergone  greater  revolutions  than  the 
material  globe,  and  that  never  before  was  there 
such  a  manifestation  of  original  thought  as  now. 
Not  only  in  schools,  but  elsewhere,  thinkers  of 
every  grade  associate  themselves  in  parties  too 
numerous  to  be  remembered.     Books  are  so  mul- 


titudinous  that  ere  long  a  large  library  will  be 
deemed  a  nuisance;  periodicals  of  every  season, 
trom  the  annual  to  the  semi-daily,  perhaps  soon 
to  be  followed  by  the  hourly,  force  themselves 
like  flies  upon  our  attention;  all  are  taught  to 
read;  the  wildest  theories  have  their  propagators. 

Nor  are  universities  now  recognized  as  endowed 
with  authority  to  determine  infallibly  between 
truth  and  error,  and  to  impose  their  decisions 
upon  the  community. 

But  universities  are  needed  in  the  present  age 
and  in  America,  if  possible,  more  than  ever  before. 
To  regulate  rather  than  originate,  to  discriminate, 
classify,  select,  and  reject,  to  value  and  stamp,  is 
becoming  constantly  a  greater  demand  and  neces- 
sity. The  world  is  running  wild  with  disjointed 
thought;  and  honest  youths  are  lost  in  a  wild 
babel  of  conflicting  claimants.  Can  there  be  no 
guide?  A  university  by  common  consent  is  un- 
derstood to  be  the  highest  of  all  schools  or  collect- 
ions of  men  who  claim  to  be  teachers  and  con- 
ductors in  all  the  pathways  of  mental  and  mater- 
ial investigation.  The  faculty  and  their  associates 
in  instruction  profess  to  be  competent  to  instruct 
in  their  respective  lines,  and  communicate  all  that 
can  be  taught.  They  really  constitute  the  uni- 
versity. The  incorporation,  endowment,  libraries, 
and  apparatus  of  every  kind,  are  simply  to  aid 
them  in  their  high  vocation. 

Now  for  what  are  these  institutions  most 
needed  ?     Not   simply  for  original  investigation. 


In  the  modern  arousement  of  intellect,  stimulated 
by  the  renown  of  discoverers  and  inventors,  and 
by  the  great  wealth  which  is  often  the  prize  of  a 
new  application  of  science  or  art  to  material 
products,  original  thought  has  become  a  weed 
that  obtrudes  itself  into  every  garden.  Associa- 
tions devoted  to  every  kind  of  investigation,  and 
rewards  offered  for  every  valuable  increment  to 
human  power,  sufficiently  stimulate  the  fever  for 
originality  of  expression  and  action. 

Are  universities  needed  simply  to  enable  youth 
who  have  passed  through  the  prescribed  curricu- 
lum of  a  lower  school  to  proceed  indefinite!)'  fur- 
ther under  the  leadership  of  trained  guides  in  well 
defined  and  unvarying  pathways  nearly  the  same 
for  ages,  as  in  China,  always  looking  backward, 
and  hostile  to  the  ever-varying  demands  of  the 
outer  world  ?  Certainly  this  is  not  the  ideal  of 
an  American  university. 

There  can  be  no  authority  from  without  or 
above  arbitrarily  to  make  universities  what  it  con- 
ceives they  should  be.  Like  agriculture  and  man- 
ufactures, art,  science,  and  human  government, 
they  must  become,  under  the  free  action  of  de- 
mand and  supply,  and  experiment,  and  failure  and 
success,  what  the  forces  of  human  endeavor  shall 
make  them.  But  it  is  the  part  of  wisdom  to  form 
a  clear  idea  of  what  they  ought  to  be  and  do. 
First,  undoubtedly  they  are  to  teach  the  most  ad- 
vanced of  those  who  have  still  time  to  spend  chiefly 
in    learning  and   in   being  taught.      Second,    un- 


9 

doubtedly  the)-  should  encourage  the  greatest 
degree  and  varieties  of  original  investigation, 
needed  by  those  whose  function  it  is  to  teach  what 
is  already  known,  and  also  how  to  investigate. 
Third,  and  chief,  they  should  show  the  true  value 
or  relative  values  of  all  knowledge  and  art  of  all 
kinds,  ancient  and  modern,  and  be  able  to  aid  stu- 
dents to  determine  what  they  need  to  know,  as  wrell 
as  to  guide  them  after   the  track  is  chosen. 

Ideally,  the  last  demand  is  first  and  highest. 
Perfection  in  it  implies  omniscience  and  absolute 
justice  and  unlimited  benevolence.  Therefore,  to 
a  university  made  up  of  fallible  men  it  is  forever 
unattainable.  Nevertheless  it  is  the  part  of  wis- 
dom to  aim  at  perfection.  What  and  why,  as 
well  as  how  to  study,  require  investigation. 

There  may  yet  come  a  recoil  against  science 
and  art  and  culture,  so  called,  as  against  religion; 
and  then  universities  will  be  needed  to  stand  in 
the  breach,  as  the  church  stands  against  secularism 
and  animalism.  Symptoms  of  this  possible  on- 
slaught of  refined  barbarism  are  not  wanting;  and 
indeed,  in  other  ages,  it  has  frequently  appeared, 
with  the  usual  variations  in  form,  but  always 
tending  to  disintegration  and  destruction.  Civili- 
zations  have  had  their  ebbs  and  subsidences  and 
destructions;  and  perhaps  the  noisy  and  preten- 
tious utilitarianism  of  the  nineteenth  century  may 
follow  their  example.     If  so,  what  is  to  follow  I 

There  are  many  wrho  seriously  question  the 
value  of  popular  education.      By  some  it  is  claimed 


IO 


that  our  public  schools  actually  increase  the 
aggregate  of  discontent  and  crime.  How  long 
before  a  graver  charge  may  be  brought  against 
our  higher  schools?  If  the  outcome  of  honest 
thought  is  pessimism,  why  should  the  world  hurry 
the  catastrophe?  If  rotting  must  follow  ripening, 
why  be  anxious  for  the  harvest  ?  If  all  material 
nature  is  as  destitute  of  plan  and  design  as  the 
disorderly  mixture  in  the  refuse  of  a  kitchen 
thrown  into  a  slop  barrel,  why  should  scientists 
spend  their  own  time  and  ask  the  attention  of 
others  to  stirring  it  up  unnecessarily?  If  nominal- 
ism be  really  the  true  philosophy,  and  there  is 
absolutely  nothing  beyond  names,  why  should 
men  puzzle  themselves  to  create  and  quarrel  over 
classifications  which  are  simply  hallucinations? 
If  all  things  are  evolved  without  an  Evolver,  and 
in  the  last  analysis,  evolution  and  devolution,  im- 
provement and  abasement,  sanity  and  insanity  are 
identical,  why  harass  ourselves  with  what  has 
no  beginning,  nor  ending,  nor  form,  nor  reason, 
nor  soul?  If  scientific  and  metaphysical  and 
religious  discussions  alike  are  as  worthless  as  the 
chattering  of  apes,  why  persist  in  the  chattering? 
Ought  not  the  commune,  the  great  all  of  humanity 
who  may  be  supposed  to  have  common  sense,  to 
determine  how  much  and  how  little  of  this  amuse- 
ment to  allow,  and  take  efficient  means  to  enforce 
its  will? 

These  interrogatories  suggest  the   proper  func- 
tions of  universities.      They  ought  to  be  fountains 


I  [ 

of  the  soundest,  highest,  and  best  of  thought  and 
culture  to  the  people.  They  should  fear  nothing 
so  much  as  either  inferiority  or  bewilderment. 
They  should  not  shrink  from  the  most  difficult  of 
problems;  they  should  have  courage  They 
should  be  able  to  discriminate  between  the 
valuable  and  the  unessential,  and  honestly  and 
bravely  defend  the  best.  If  they  do  this  they  will 
never  become  obsolete. 

During  the  palmiest  clays  of  European  universi- 
ties, when  confessedly  they  exerted  their  greatest 
power  as  guides  of  the  *  nations,  the  wonderful 
writings  of  Aristotle  were  studied  with  a 
reverence  that  almost  betokened  a  belief  in  their 
inspiration.  Perhaps  the  reaction  against  them, 
begun  by  Lord  Bacon,  has  led  to  too  great 
neglect  of  some  of  the  subjects  discussed  by  the 
great  Stagirite,  the  most  comprehensive  mind,  take 
it  for  all  in  all,  that  has  appeared  among  men. 
No  better  discipline  could  now  be  received  than 
to  examine  thoroughly  his  general  outline  of  all 
thought,  with  the  illustrations  and  corrections  and 
enlargements  of  history.  And  why  should  not 
all  our  students  in  the  university  be  aided 
thoroughly  to  trace  out  the  wronclerful  power  in 
the  world,  alike  of  the  Hebrew  commonwealth 
and  expectation,  followed  by  the  Christian  faith 
and  virtue  and  philanthropy,  as  well  as  the  effects 
of  Grecian  philosophy,  Roman  law,  medieval  art 
and  modern  discovery  and  investigation? 

Universities  that  neglect  the   highest    problems 


12 

are  gradually  digging  their  own  graves,  and  pre- 
paring themselves  to  be  bowed  out  of  the  com- 
pany of  recognized  factors  of  the  world.  There 
is  an  instinct  that  demands  leadership.  The 
people  seek  to  find  and  follow  creators.  To 
elect  is  not  to  create,  but  to  find  and  designate 
and  acknowledge.  It  matters  .  not  how  our 
universities  may  be  established,  whether  by  indi- 
viduals, associations,  the  church,  or  the  state;  but 
when  established  we  desire  them  to  be  in  advance 
of  their  founders,  as  we  desire  a  president  to  be 
superior  to  those  who  appoint  him.  Whether  in 
the  constitution,  written  or  by  common  consent, 
there  should  be  a  wide  range  for  benevolent  ac- 
tivity. The  university  is  created  to  be  an  investi- 
gator, sifter,  and  promulgator  of  sound  thought. 
It  should  rather  be  creative  than  destructive, 
though  each  aim  is  necessary.  It  should  and  will 
attract  to  itself  the  sympathy  of  the  best  mindsj 
by  its  evident  honesty  of  purpose  and  unquestioned 
strength. 

I  do  not  therefore  regard  universities  as  in 
danger  of  becoming  obsolete.  Society  can  never 
outgrow  them.  They  are  as  eternal  as  the  race. 
They  are  practically  schools  with  no  upward 
limitation,  and  they  will  be  needed  as  long  as 
there  is  truth  to  discover  and  men   to   be   taught. 

But  nothing  unchangeable  is  permanent  in 
exact  form.  Whatever  is  to  abide  must  accom- 
modate itself  to  ever  varying  demands.  Is  there 
not  a  demand  in  American  society  which  perhaps 


13 

universities,  better  than  any  other  agency,  might 
volunteer  to  supply? 

Is  there  not  needed  a  comprehensive,  impartial 
summing  up  from  time  to  time  of  the  thought, 
discovery,  aims,  and  ability  of  the  times,  which, 
compactly  and  lucidly  set  forth,  would  direct  the 
great  leaders  of  the  people  in  Church  and  State? 
Whence  could  this  come  so  properly  as  from  a 
university  ? 

Such  problems  as  the  proper  adjustment  of 
appointed  to  elected  officers  in  this  great  republic, 
commonly  called  the  civil  service  reform,  or  the 
relations  of  mining  to  agricultural  industry  in 
California,  where  they  seem  to  oppose  each 
other;  or  the  great  question  of  a  proper  adjust- 
ment of  American  civilization  to  Asiatic  emigra- 
tion, call  for  a  comprehensive  and  lucid  setting 
forth  that  should  be  so  thorough,  so  clear  and  so 
honest,  that,  however  much  criticised,  its  truth 
would  be  acknowledged  and  in  course  of  time  its 
recommendations  would  be  obeyed.  Now,  I  ask, 
whence  could  this  come  so  well  as  from  a  univer- 
sity? 

But  I  have  no  room  in  an  address  to  elaborate 
these  suggestions.  Permit  me  to  say  that  I  have 
been  too  long  engaged  in  university  life  not  to  be 
in  full  sympathy  with  it.  It  was  my  good  fortune 
and  great  pleasure  to  labor  for  and  in  perhaps  the 
strongest,  because  the  oldest  and  best  managed  of 
our  State  Universities,  while  it  was  passin 
through  some  of  its   hardest  experience.     It  con 


b 


*4 

quered  a  position  universally  regarded  as  victori- 
ous and  felicitous.  It  has  frequently  demonstrat- 
ed its  right  to  live.  I  can  see  also  the  peculiar 
incentives  and  difficulties  of  such  an  institution  in 
this  State. 

From  one  point  of  view  our  State  is  one  of  the 
oldest  in  the  world.  It  is  the  product  of  the  old- 
est thought,  and  therefore  ought  to  be  the  best. 

The  anonymous  author  of  the  u  Vestiges  of 
Creation,"  half  a  century  ago,  well  said:  "  The 
United  States  might  be  expected  to  make  no  great 
way  in  civilization  till  they  be  fully  peopled  to  the 
Pacific;  and  it  might  not  be  unreasonable  to  ex- 
pect that  when  that  event  has  occurred  the  great- 
est civilization  of  that  vast  territory  will  be  found 
in  the  peninsula  of  California,  and  the  narrow 
strip  of  country  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains." 
This  certainly  is  a  sagacious  prophecy,  probably 
of  a  Scotchman.  The  peninsula  of  California  as 
yet  makes  no  great  impression  on  the  world.  Per- 
haps it  will  soon  be  heard  like  the  cracker  of  a 
whip.  But  "the  narrow  strip  of  country  beyond 
the  Rocky  Mountains,'7  not  so  very  narrow  after 
all  if  Scotland  is  to  be  taken  as  a  measuring  line, 
is  fast  filling  up.  We  are  beginning  to  conquer 
a  place  in  the  attention  of  the  world;  we  are 
conscious  of  a  destiny  to  come. 

With  this  view,  in  common  with  you  all,  I  hope 
for  a  noble  development  of  all  the  educational 
institutions  of  our  Pacific  Coast. 


J5 

And  among  them  all,  none  has  a  grander  op- 
portunity than  this  University  of  California.  Here 
on  this  beautiful  bay,  with  the  great  arms  of  the 
State  on  the  right  and  on  the  left,  and  the  conti- 
nent behind  it,  and  already  strongly  founded,  I 
trust  it  will  be  conspicuous  among  its  associates, 
the  leader  of  leaders,  the  mother  of  well  trained 
intellects  and  hearts,  and  worthy  of  honorable 
mention  and  memory  among  the  renowned  uni- 
versities of  the  leading  nations  in  the  world. 


3  0112  105611922 


